Re: + minutes of 2020-09-15 meeting - Re: Sharing the BLM statement feedback with the AC

I can be sure to mention something, I already planned to encourage AC members to nominate more diverse members from their companies!

From: Jeff Jaffe <jeff@w3.org>
Date: Tuesday, September 15, 2020 at 4:32 PM
To: Tobie Langel <tobie@unlockopen.com>, Annette Greiner <amgreiner@lbl.gov>
Cc: "public-idcg@w3.org" <public-idcg@w3.org>
Subject: Re: + minutes of 2020-09-15 meeting - Re: Sharing the BLM statement feedback with the AC
Resent-From: <public-idcg@w3.org>
Resent-Date: Tuesday, September 15, 2020 at 4:32 PM



On 9/15/2020 4:04 PM, Tobie Langel wrote:
On Tue, Sep 15, 2020 at 20:53 Annette Greiner <amgreiner@lbl.gov<mailto:amgreiner@lbl.gov>> wrote:

It occurred to me today that we should consider more impactful

ways to incentivize participation by black technologists. For

example, what if we offered free membership for any organization

that has a rep who is black?
More diversity within the AC is great. Just as important would is more diversity within the WGs themselves.

I find it particularly disturbing that large companies sending large numbers of technologist to multiple working groups aren’t doing even a small effort to improve the diversity of their own cohorts.

Could we consider making W3C members sign (on a voluntary basis) a pledge with concrete steps to improve this situation, communicate about it, and then hold them accountable?

I'm not sure how to do it, but Kim's point: "if you don't have the power ... push it to the people with power" resonated with me.

The power to name a more diverse set of participants lies mostly with the Members.  I would like us as a CG to have a Call to Action to Members to get involved.  Right now IDCG folks are participating as individuals.  It would be good to have Members working with us to come up with a common platform of commitments we can all make.

Tobie's suggestion is certainly one good option.

Wendy, perhaps in your AC presentation, you can raise the issue of how we make common cause.  If you don't mind, I would like to include that in my CEO Overview as well.

W3C Team can also help with participation, e.g. more freely approving a diverse set of Invited Experts.

—tobie